Okay, my attempt at an RP. Uses the same world and time zone as another RP I started, but a different starting place and story.

Character creation is freeform, with no rule systems. For rules on magic, see below.

Location: The land of Tarmilain.

Time: The beginning of the Broken Age, just after the Sundering and the end of the God Wars.

Technology: Medieval

History:

Spoiler:

The land of Tarmilain was created long ago by the gods as a haven and new home for the survivors of an ancient disaster. Under the watchful eye of the Gods, the multifarious races inhabiting the land have grown and prospered in peace and harmony. This peace, however, was broken less than five hundred years ago by the arrival of the High Elves from the Great Sea to the west. With them they brought great and powerful magic and great skill and knowledge of many crafts, but with them they also brought a lust for power. The peace of the lands began to weaken when some of the High Elves became sympathetic for the Humans and tried to aid them by giving them the secrets of their magic and crafts. However, many of the humans they granted the power to, the Samanari in the elftongue, or "Celestials" in the common speech, became obsessed with their newfound power. Unlike the few which used it for the purpose the elves intended, that of aiding the human race, and other races, these men used it to gain power for themselves. They used the Celestial magic to manipulate the men around them and soon rose to power, establishing Cians, or territories, for themselves. They soon became known and feared by all common men.

The High Elves, who had withheld their knowledge from humankind for this very reason, punished those who gave it to the Samanari by casting them out from the ranks of the High Elves. Many of these elves became the Fallen and went into hiding, aiding the humans under the oppression of the Samanari. They found and united those Samanari who had remained uncorrupted, forming a resistance movement. However, some of the outcasts mixed and bred with humans, soon becoming part of certain groups of human society. These human clans were forsaken by all other humans, and moved away to an uninhabited area of land. These became the fabled Half-Elf clans. Occasionally, a Half-Elven child will show remarkable magical proficiency, and will be brought up in the ways of Celestial magic.

The High Elves tried to control the damage some of their kind had done, attacking the Cians of the corrupt Samanari, now called the Samaracht. They responded by counter-attacking the High Elves, and soon a terrible war ensued. The Smamracht, in an attempt to gain access to metal supplies in order to forge weapons and armour for their troops, attacked the mines of the Dwarves in the central mountain range of Tarmilain. This caused the Dwarves to go to war with the Humans as well. Meanwhile, the Serengi, a forest-dwelling race occupying the northern lands of the continent, attacked the High Elves, blaming them for the mindless destruction of the forest by the warring armies. The terrible war took millions of lives and threatened to destroy the entire land.

Luckily for all the races, Saranephan the Peacekeeper, the benevolent god who had first created the land as a safe haven, took pity on the victims of the war, and created yet another continent for refugees to flee to. He created a single great vessel to take them there, and sent his priests and prophets throughout the land to gather refugees and aid them in their journey to the port where the ship was docked. As the ship was about to set off, however, Durankar the Destroyer sent his followers to stop it, insisting that "Mortalkind must face the future they have created for themselves." He commanded his followers to attack the boat and slaughter all aboard, but Saranephan sacrificed himself to save them, blasting Durankar with the strength of his essence and slaying him, causing his followers to flee in terror. As his last act, the Peacekeeper appointed a prophet, Armoth, to lead the refugees to the safety of the new land.

The death of Durankar, however, threw out the fragile balance of power between the gods. They began to battle for power, land and strength, blasting the land with powerful magic. These terrible God Wars scathed the land, destroying parts of it entirely. At one point, competition for land in the mountains at the center of the land cause out mountain to be blasted with raw magic and life energy. Within the center of the mountain, a large cluster of rocks received the main force of this blast, and suddenly began to live. They were named trolls by the humans of Tarmilain, after the mountain's name of Mt Troladar.

The God Wars lasted for many years, and, when the balance of power was finally restored, the lands lay in ruin. Terrible creatures roamed the land, entering it through the breaks in reality caused by the massive amounts of magic that had bombarded the land. Much of this magic had remained embedded in the land, allowing several new forms of magic to be created. The only survivors of the war were scattered, living in tiny villages and hamlets or wandering the land without aim. Bandits and other brigands attack all those who dare to venture from the safety of numbers.

Rules of Magic:

Spoiler:

Loosely based on the Dungeon Lords magic system.

Three types of magic have sprung from the God Wars: Arcane, Nether and Rune magic. These, along with the Celestial Magic brought into the world by the High Elves, means that there are now four types of magic within the land of Tarmilain.

Celestial Magic: Brought into the world by the High Elves when they arrived from accross the Great Sea, Celestial magic depends on the use of magical crystals created by the High Elves and imbued with a certain power. The secret of crafting the crystals is known only to a few skilled craftsmen among the High Elves, and, since the God Wars, they have not sold, traded or given their crystals to anyone else. Therefore Celestial magicians depend on the crystals they find scattered around the lands as a new source of power.

Each Celestial crystal holds a single charge of its spell. Once a crystal is used, it will slowly recharge its power until it can eventually be used again. They recharge faster in certain areas for some unknown reason.

Celestial Crystals are offensive spells and "area buffs" (ie. Slowing down time for everyone and everything in the area, except maybe one person.

Arcane Magic: The magic that bombarded the lands during the God Wars has left certain area saturated with large amounts of magic. Not long after the Wars ended, some people, experimenting with certain woods in one of the saturated areas, discovered that the magic may be absorbed and stored in staffs made of certain rare woods. The magic can then be released by chanting certain spells and incantations.

Arcane magicians carry staves which store magical power. They can cast spells by chanting fancy-sounding latinesque phrases related to those spells. For example, the phrase for lighting up an area would be arcanis illuminatum.

Arcane magic is your "classic" wizard/mage magic.

Nether Magic: Some creatures and items were severely bombarded by magic during the Wars. It has been discovered that, by mixing certain ingredients from these creatures, powerful curses and summoning spells can be used.

Nether magic is basically eye of newt and leg of toad stuff. Mix up weird-sounding ingredients and throw them into the air or something.

As above, this is mostly curses/debuffs and summoning spells.

Rune Magic: In the mountain where the trolls originated, Mt Troladar, many strange crytals were discovered. They were imbued with a strange form of magic. However, it was discovered that there were two types of crystal: The first were those which had been bombarded with pure, raw magic of many forms. he second had been hit by a specific spell, and had had their magical "imprint" altered to reflect that spell's "imprint". It was discovered that by rubbing the crystals in a certain way, while in the presence of certain of the first type of crystal, certain spells can be cast, at the cost of some of the power of the type 1 crystals which the spell needs to operate.

Runic Magicians carry spell crystals and power crystals. Every time the spell crystals are used to cast a spell, part of the power of certain power crystals is used up. This power returns slowly over time.

-Magic (Apart from Nether Magic) exerts a toll on the user that increases exponentially with the power of the magic. Feel free to magically wipe out an entire civilization, without planning, in one post, provided your character becomes terribly emaciated, loses all sensory apparatus and enters into a permanent coma.-Post properly, and write well. Please use spellcheck, and if you write in Mxit/internet shorthand, you will burn.-Bear with me if my GMing isn't very good.

Looking for 4-6 characters (Half-Elf, High Elf, Human for preference, since Trolls, Serengi and Dwarves aren't well-defined as yet), preferably with one who is from the Darathim. If your character is the latter, expect PMs about what you're supposed to be doing to start off the RP.

An alternate plan is that I will create the Darathim character and play that for a while, then hand it over to someone/get rid of it, on account of how if I don't the roleplay will be self-centric, which spoils it for everyone else.

Hmm... I'd be interested in playing a High Elf character, if it came to that. How're things with the high elves now? Are the main body still united, battling humans, or have they scattered after the God Wars? I wouldn't mind playing one of those who weren't outcast, but might've just become one himself for whatever reason.

Anyway, I think this has some going potential, so I'm all for playing :D

The High Elves are united politically and geographically, but not philosophically. There are those who thought that the High Elves should never have gone to war, simply defending their own strongholds and letting the other races duke it out amongst themselves.

Their opinions on the other races range widely as well. Humans can be anything from "A slightly weaker race" to "animals" (Literally. Slightly intelligent animals. This extremity is rare, however). Dwarves are held in slightly higher opinion; some elves even consider them equal. Serengi (As I currently imagine them, think slightly less strong, slimmer wookies) vary even wider than humans. Half-elves are thought of in one of two ways: "Not so bad" (Rare) or "mongrels" (Very common). There is no middle ground for them.

90% of High Elves are conceited and arrogant, and, what's worse, many think that they try to understand/foster/help the "lesser races". 5% are yet worse than this, thinking of themselves as veritable gods. Only the remaining five, or less, percent are truly benevolent and humble.

Also, a note: Since this world is still very much in development, you can be quite flexible with your characters. Stay within reasonable bounds, of course, by you can be creative. I'd like, for example, to have a new interpretation of dwarves in this world, personality- and culture-wise, but the ones I think of are all "old" new interpretations, if you see what I mean. So if you have an idea, go for it. If you're not sure it's within the bounds of the world, ask here and I'll tell you.

Description: Elenael was deemed of stock to join the Order of Crossed Blades at birth, her parents giving her up for the semi-religious order to raise her to become a warrior of the High Elven people. She's slender, but sinewy, her body trained since she could walk to wield the blade and face down the horrors brought upon the world of Tarmilain after the God Wars. She is more at home on the battlefield, or in the swamps and forests where evil dwell, than in any keep or temple, and it is through her deeds she defines her faith and conviction. She is devoted to the Goddess Mëwen, twin and aspect of Althuril, the High Elven god of conflict, and like her orderbrethren she wears the ceremonious Armor of the Devoted, elven-crafted plate-mail, and the accompanying helmet that hides her features but a narrow T-formed strip for her to see and breathe through. The helmet is simple in design, all of it lacquered in frost blue, the color of her family, with light golden-yellow trimmings. At her side is always Themeros, the blade given to her by her birth-father at the day of her perfection, when she was given leave to travel the world alone to seek out evil wherever it laid its lair, and destroy it.

Elenael is tall and beautiful, like most of her elven brethren, but her training has given her the sleek, almost starved look of a mountain-wolf. She has almost chiseled features and stern, blue-gray eyes, that stare with a pierce that can make many unsettled. Her waist-long, ash-blonde hair is kept tied up in a bun most of the time, as she is forbidden to cut it to a shorter length. She generally only wears her plate-mail or sturdy traveller's clothing, but can at occasions also dress herself in the simple, but elegant garment of her order during such occasions.

Personality: Elenael was raised to be the unswerving blade of her order, and of Mëwen, a duty she has never questioned. She is few of words, harsh in her judgement of others and consider half-elves, humans and all other races but her own as thinking animals. She has learned to be more... tolerant of other races during her travels, but considers her duties and loyalties far more important than fostering good relations between the elves and others. It simply isn't her duty.

She values strength and honor, and would rather fall on her blade than let her own honor be sullied. She isn't quick to anger, although she is furious in battle, directing her wrath like a cutting blade, her hatred and disgust for the unnatural beasts spawned by the God Wars unequaled.

---

Uhh... there we go. Just a draft, really, if there's anything you feel is wrong or doesn't have the right feeling, go ahead and tell me. :D I kind of imagined her as Guts from Berserk... although perhaps not... quite as dark.

Considering a half-elf, also a wielder of blades, but with a personality that kind of requires a foil in the party to make her achieve optimum awesomeness. I'm talking to a friend of mine about this, and we may bring characters that have some connection to each other so that he'll always have someone to facepalm at and she'll always have someone around astute enough to know that he should.

Hmm. Maybe a Celestial crystal in the hilt which manifests through the sword. Or, more likely, a special crystal made by combining multiple crystals, giving her access to multiple spells. It would still only be about five spells though.

Watercleave wrote:Perfect. I like the "It simply isn't her duty." It sums up the High Elf persona pretty well.

One question: How "tolerant" has she become of the other races? Has her tolerance changed her opinion of them at all?

~Watercleave

Oh sweet lord, I totally forgot to answer this.

Elenael has been travelling for a few years. She's seen enough of the road to learn a few good lessons about personal hygiene, suspicious peasants and what lurks behind yonder knoll, but all in all she's seen more elves than the rest. She's come to expect humans, half-elves and other 'people' to at least show her civility and hospitality, especially since she's actually paying for it, but she wouldn't trust a human to watch her back if her life depended on it. She can trade with them, she can live close to them, but she's not making friends with them.

At least, not for now. Then again, despite feeling this way, if she finds someone with, by her standards, sufficient honor and good manners, a camaraderie of sort may develop, as I doubt I'd enjoy playing a racist loner in this game.

I'm not real picky about what kind of spells she'd have, and I think I'd leave that decision up to the GM, if you don't mind, unless you have some specific requests? I also think she would be more aligned to being a pure damage-dealer, she's not used to fighting together with others.